


Noctuary

by Iammissingautumn



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast), Мор. Утопия | Pathologic
Genre: 10 Minute Writing Prompt, 5 minute writing prompt, Double Drabble, Drabble, F/F, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Short One Shot, a few ambiguous ships, deltarune & dndads is a one chapter thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 6,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24360748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iammissingautumn/pseuds/Iammissingautumn
Summary: A series of prompt inspired ficlets.
Relationships: Julia Luricheva | Yulia Lyuricheva/Eve Yahn | Eva Yan
Kudos: 14





	1. Notkin, Cornucopia

The day was special and different. They had the warehouses set up, everyone around made sure to wear their collars; everyone helped. Today was dedicated for their halves. It was a quiet day, no halves were let in while they set up. There were areas set up for many different events. Today all the souls came together to take care of their halves, treat them. It was a tradition as old as they were. Though, it was one of the few times Jester had to be away from Notkin. And he couldn't help but wish deep down that that wasn't the case.


	2. Rubin and Grief, Futility

Stakh and Grief were sure of one thing. This was useless, every day that they continued on. They tried harder and harder to forget it, pined but only in secret. They gave themself nothing but time to get over it, to not give in. It was futile. But that didn't stop them.


	3. Yulia and Anna, Lifeline

Yulia clung to math. Something about it had always come naturally. When she was younger and couldn't knit properly, she would do maths to remind herself she could do something correctly. That she could be okay. When she worked for the inquisition, it was easier to worry about how to figure out the problem in front of her rather than the rumors that went around.

Anna kept her eyes ahead of her, arms out as she put on foot in front of the other. She watched the rope under her too. But of course after years when it shook, it wasn't as scary as it had once been. It was easier than being down there, where she knew they would have to get back to work soon.


	4. Oyun and Taya, Booha

“Come on, basaghan. It’ll be okay.” She was a year old now and both her father and Oyun had agreed she needed to understand the animals better. 

She was standing a few feet away. Not saying a word but watching carefully. He could tell she was scared, but of course, she was. The Booha could kill her in one motion, he wasn’t going to grow upset over something reasonable. But she wasn’t moving. 

He wasn’t sure what did it today. He had seen her by both cows and bulls before. There were ones she had probably seen from birth if she had been paying enough attention, it always felt like she was. But she didn’t move, only stood fiercely as if that was the challenge. Though with one leg behind herself as if she was going to turn and be done. So instead, he walked over and scooped her up in his arms. Shaking her lightly and saying a few more words from the steppe, something he had done many times by now, and watched as she giggled. 

“Now, now basaghan. You’ve said it before. Now one more time. Boo-ha.” Oyun smiled, watching her mouth as she tried to form the words. 

“Boo… ha!” Taya touched one hand to his cheek, spreading her fingers out as if mapping how his face looked, and laughed. 

“Come on girl. It’s just one word. Boo-ha. Booha.” 

“Boo… ha! Booha!” 

“Tiimeel daa, you did well” he twisted around with her for a moment. Hoping that it came across that she did well. Oyun tightened his grip on her, making sure she was supported in his arms. “Now come. It’ll be okay, I’ll keep you here. Noukher wouldn’t ever hurt us. She’s kind.” 

Taya didn’t say a word, nothing aloud at least. He could tell she was concerned yet he was unsure why. She had much time to explore and be with boohas, yet it was like she had never seen one before. He wouldn't have called her scared, but there was a hesitance he didn’t understand. 

Oyun brought her closer and put one hand out. Petting Noukher on the side. To start off tame. Nudging her to join him. 

Though Oyun only huffed a laugh, Taya placed her hand on his. Making sure she kept up with his movements as they pet her

“Noukher … it’s okay, you are berkhe." Oyun stalled his hand for a moment, feeling the booha breathe. He turns to Taya for a moment, feeling relief flood through him as he sees her smile. Her hands slides off of Oyuns and onto the fur of Noukher. 

"He is yours mother, he will not hurt you. Just pay attention."

Oyun watched the child move carefully, she was too young to understand everything she truly was. But he could see in her eyes she was catching on. She would grow into herself perfectly.


	5. Grace

Grace touched the grave and thought long and hard. She was hoping he could hear her. He was so loud. Every day he was in pain, lamented of all the things he was never able to do. She had brought him milk and sang in a low voice, a song lost to time that her father had once sung. 

Grace cared for him, in the winter she brushed away the snow and she kept the cobwebs from piling up. Grace worked hard to make sure that his stayed clean. They had asked so kindly after all, of course, she would care for him. She cared for all of them.


	6. Willows

The world inside was twisted. What had once belonged to simple enough family now was flipped and turned. There were beds high on walls and things stacked in angles that shouldn't be allowed. Where once laid books, shelves, and beds, all clean and made to look proper, now on the ground forgotten. Becoming replaced by posters and things fallen over, all in a pattern that makes certain objects unreachable.

When Anna looks at certain places in her home she swears she sees what used to be. But it's deformed now. Unnatural. Something that had once been so right, now wrong because of the thing forced inside. Just like the girl herself.


	7. Grief

Grief looked out of the windows, his back unsupported as he looked towards the red-tinted skies. Ah, what the windows did to the outside. Outside, he had said once they could cut the line. Stop anything else from coming in or out and they could either die or figure out what was to happen but not have their future determined by an asshole with an authority complex. But instead, he could only start a fire. Yet even now he found it hard to not stop thinking of outside. Being far from here. The cathedral was beautiful. But he had no place here. He was but an actor who rejected their role. He had so little to do now… But he resisted and now he didn't fit. The cathedral wasn't a home forever.


	8. Katerina

So many hopes,  
Every time it's so hard but there's the chance,  
A baby will be born

But of course,   
The days come,  
And that is not the case,

For a mistress who was her,  
One of unbalance,   
Molded in the image of clay  
Did not get the pleasure of an heir,

So once more she will take one more pill,  
Or three or four,  
Just to numb the pain of what has been torn.


	9. Andrei and Georgiy

"It was the idea of making something so permanent. I've always liked architecture because he liked architecture. I mean I think it's cool but I get to say I'm the one who designed this, I grabbed these materials and put them together. Directed others and told them where to put what part. I was told every problem and fixed it myself. It was made useable and perfect by me. By that I make something beautiful. Making statues are the same, I prefer marble because it's beautiful and permanent. You bash it till it's perfect." Andrei was twisting his knife in his hands, moving it out of impulse as he explains a passion of his to one of the few he assumed must get it. 

"Yes… that makes sense. Though that's very… stuck. I'd say for me it's more… beautiful. Why make something for people to think of the past when you could make something that reminds people of the future?"

Andrei stopped, and watched Georgiy moved around the stool that held his stone. He was walking around it, smoothing out a certain piece while they spoke. He tried to form words or be witty. But maybe… he was just too new for this place. 

His words would make sense someday.


	10. Grace and Saburov

There was something Saburov felt when he was with Grace. Sure, there was being able to know what she was feeling at almost all times, he was basically always around Katerina. But it happens that her powers were small, it was routed in her birth. As she took care of the dead she gave them an outlet for their powers once more. Though so many dead found what they had gone mute… she accidentally radiated energy from more passive things. Where people had an edge of being able to demand things from others or an inherent understanding of things he had never really needed to know yet surprisingly helped him in his every day. 

Grace gave him power, some of which wasn't met to come back. But she was much too young to fully understand what she could do. Maybe it was evil to continue on and take without her having an inkling of an idea that he was actively doing that. 

But the power was so refreshing.


	11. Grief and Lara

"You always tie my hair in knots!" Lara protested, crossing her arms. Plopping down on the floor anyway.

"No I don't! Trust me! Isidor taught me how to brain with rope, I know what I'm doing!" Grief was insistent and sat behind her despite how she rolled her eyes. She was always so caught up on the knots in her hair, he couldn't understand caring about such a simple thing. He never minded when his had.

Grief separated the two parts of her hair, gnawing on his lips as he focused. He didn't want to mess up, she already had teased him about not knowing. It had been a joke then but that didn't stop him from showing her he could actually do it.

"Ow… don't tug so hard." She stated it almost like an order. So he tugged a bit more, not enough to hurt but more so he could hear her light breath of a laugh, which he did. 

Grief had cleaned his hands when he had came into the Ravel manor. Making sure he wasn't getting oil or dirt all over her. He was collecting as much hair as he could so that there wasn't too much just hanging around. He moved his hands carefully but with a mission. Which had genuinely lead to him apologizing a few times.

It was about a half hour till he was done and happy. He set her hair down with a 'ta da!' and handed her her hand mirror. Watching carefully as she studied herself. 

There were strands missing. Many in the front and in the end her hair was loose and imperfect. It was obvious this was his first time doing this.

Lara smiled her not quite real smile that always had fit her the best. 

"I like it."


	12. Artemiy Burakh

Artemiy watched over many people, both his friends and the kids who were to run the entire town. Without intention he taught every single one of them something and yet nothing felt good enough. He could feel the own holes in his logic. Felt his insides be torn apart as he recognized how he never followed his own advice. From the start with 'no killing' and as days go on he can't even follow simple things such as 'communicate with your friends'. It all felt like a lie, like he was proving with every lie and brush off that he wasn't what everyone cracked him up to be. He was just like everyone else, he was just lower than them. He fixed the right herbs together but in the end he felt shame radiate through him as he did something he told them not to do. 'Listen to others', 'consider how the other person is feeling', 'you have to open up to really be loved'. Too much he found himself not following. He didn't know what to do.


	13. Clara

Clara studied herself, letting out a bitter laugh when she mirrored her. One arm up, another arm up. A head tilt, followed by another. If you put them down to their bare essential you would inf they were very not one in the same. You would find birthmark differences, how Clara always kept their nails short while the Changeling kept her hair hidden behind the hat. Shirts slightly different copies. 

If they were to become one they would become almost perfect, merge into something that should actually be. And yet that is not the case. They are two separate people, far from being as same as others expect. 

And that is how, against all odds, they are still human.


	14. Daniil

Daniil Dankovsky knows he's being used. In every line he is told he understands it. He is not a complete idiot, after all, he knows what that looks like and knows that it's happening. But what is he supposed to do? Resist? Cause friction with the only people who help him? Become a dirt child with no support? No. He would be better than that, even if that meant not all would be well. Being tricked wasn't horrible, he could let it happen. There was a benefit to it after all. Any conflict because he was being used, his life being risked, was unnecessary.


	15. Yulia and Eva

Respect, it made up most of what lied between them. There was something mystical, magical about Eva. She survived and happily lived in a home that constantly kicked others out, her act of living was against the odds. Yet she succeeded easily. Her fate was to live in that home, it just took everyone else's pain for that to be found out.

Eva found that Yulia was endlessly smart. The way she did maths without counting on her fingers or grabbing a pencil and paper. She calculated and formatted the best way to set up the town. She was the reason there was no street that leads to her home and yet it still seemed like the work of someone impossibly smart. She counted the odds and knew none of it mattered. 

And yet, Yulia couldn't help but be ticked with how little Eva could care. How she could go from one thing to the next without rhyme or reason, nor did she care. If questioned about what the her future holds she would smile, laugh it off. "Who cares?" she would say, "It doesn't matter if my future is planned or not, I'm just going to keep going."   
It irked her.

And Eva knew not everyone was as they seemed. Yulia’s mathmatics proved to be overly anal, spending hours at a time trying to figure out the best way to go about things and another hour just to fact check herself. Yulia would at times refuse to muse with her, no sense of contemplating a different future or past when one is already set in stone.   
Eva couldn’t understand that much


	16. Murky and Farkhad

Set deep in the steppe. There is only MURKY, the grass, and the wind.

MURKY  
"So you made buildings that made people go crazy?" 

FARKHAD  
'I made buildings that changed around people, that changed people, sometimes for the worse and other times for the better. I made the home you stay in.' 

MURKY  
"I don't have a home, I don't know what you're talking about." 

FARKHAD  
'Do you not stay in town, child?'

MURKY  
"No! I sleep where I want, I have my own place too! But that's none of your business."

FARKHAD  
'Okay, well then I built the homes the people in towns stay in. It changes for them, to adapt to them.'

MURKY  
"Why would it do that?"

FARKHAD  
'You affect where you're around. A home gets to know you, and like a friend, so it adapts to you.'

MURKY  
"So like Notkin's gang?"

There is a silence in the grass. She knew it was confused.

MURKY  
"They have animals that they take care of and takes care of them when they get all old 'nd stuff. They care about their animals a lot but I could never see mine so…"

FARKHAD  
'It might be something like that, yes.'

MURKY  
"Well I don't see you either… so maybe it's something to do with that?"

FARKHAD  
'N--... probably. You're probably right.'


	17. Sticky

Sticky learned how to sneak around places because it was the best route to escape from. He had been hungry, grabbed a piece of bread from a store while the owner was busy with another customer and started running the moment that he started hearing yelling from the owner. The best place to go was through some rubble that let him in as if it were home. It was a safe place to stay as he waited for that to end. 

He met Isidor when he asked the kid to use his well used hands for something better. Something helpful, and when you have nothing else it's amazing how easy it is to find an excuse to do something. So he started learning, Isidor taught him and even gave him meals. He was cared for just enough to keep him coming back, that became enough.

When Sticky met Artemiy he insulted him and said he smelled. Which he had. Artemiy was bloodied and was there for the first time and Sticky had heard so much about him. Though, maybe, he could do what they said he could. Maybe he could be worth it. But later Sticky would forget the first day, instead he would remember sneaking into Old Burakh's entrance for him and staying in the only place he could call home. Where Artemiy came in and he had to almost beg not to leave. 

When Sticky met Murky during the plague he found they had unspoken pacts. They both clung to Burakh, and both had nowhere else to go. They wouldn’t tell each other but they loved him, they loved each other. He used his skills he had spent years perfecting to make sure they always had food, they had to survive. Especially when Artemiy was gone so often. 

When Artemiy, Murky, and him met after the plague it was as a family. Sticky held Murky’s hand making sure they would be able to run if what Artemiy thought he knew was wrong. And they ate full meals, they played together and everything from before hurt them all for much longer than Sticky could ever place. But it felt like home. Even though the horrors hung around.


	18. Georgiy

Georgiy was the brother of a dragon. He lived years with his brother, spent so much time planning and deciding. Together, and with their little brother, they made the town. They picked who made the houses, the streets, and extra places. The things that reached into the sky. Weather that be a home made to see the stars, a building defying gravity, or stairs that lead up to the end of time. 

They made the town, watched as the people put bricks on the walk ways, as people roofs on home. He made sure all the work got done, saw it all. It's all a result of him. He could withstand any test, he was making a utopia and no one could do better than he did. The other families were nothing, just something for the crowd to pretend that they didn't have all the power. But of course they did, and even if there were some people who didn't listen then that was okay. They wouldn't pass anyway, they weren't worth it. 

In a world of his creation, Georgiy Kain saw himself at the top. He put everyone through tests, decided who passed or failed, and everyone listened to him.


	19. Grace

Grace only wished to help them. Everyday she continued on feeling more than she can keep straight. She felt the ground move as the dead spoke through the layers of dirt. She felt the wind as it hit tombstones form across the yard. She felt so much, she was glad she stayed in somewhere not away from all the light. Sometimes it felt like the sun was only getting closer and brighter as if there was a magnifying glass held on her like she was an ant. Other times every sound was so much louder than she thought it would be, she could hear the dead and the people in the house that Aspity stayed at. But it helped them, so it was worth it. 

They said how Grace lived wasn't how kids lived, yet she was a kid and she lived like that. She was happy like that. She thought she was happy like that. 

When she was taken away she went up. An empty apartment block where the only resident stayed upstairs. He was sick, but he could feel things as she could. He kept the drapes closed, and gave her extra milk when she went back to the graveyard. She couldn't stay away, everywhere she went had dead people anyway. It wasn't easy, but when her uncle came over they would eat full meals and laugh long into the night. And the buzz of the world would fade a little as she smiled just a bit wider.


	20. Anna and Saburov

"It's all gone, right? I saved a few babies, I'm a hero, so I'm clear right?" Anna was desperate and pitiful, just as she wanted to seem. How much of it was her acting isn't her own to say, she wanted to be free of her crimes. To be forgiven by the law could be what could save her. 

Saburov didn't like all of that though, he didn't like how she came in here and asked if all her crimes were free because technically they were. That was the deal and he can't go back on it, no matter the crime. It would probably make it easier but that doesn't mean her getting away was just. "Yes, your name was on the list of people who brought babies back and we're dealing with that. You're free."

Anna… smiled at that. She didn't think it was that easy. Especially after all that she did, taking children, letting horrible people get away with horrible things because she was taken in under their horrible circumstances. She was wanted but had managed to strike her own deal with Saburov before this but now. She wonders if maybe she should have not fought. Done her time here instead of our there… she doubted the people in other cities would listen when she said she saved children and all her crimes were worth nothing now. She couldn't just leave.

"Why do you look upset at that?" Saburov's voice lowered, making her realize that her face had betrayed her. She opened her eyes a bit and let his lips move up ever so slightly. She was hoping he would think nothing yet he didn't change the subject. She bet she could take it off and something real would be under her mask. The fake mask was harder to keep on, like it didn't fit. So she lets it fall.

"I… just thought it would make me feel better." Her words feel hallow and she feels absolutely stupid to let this man, the governor, listen to her. 

"Well yes, most people do. Though I've talked to people in the capital who have said that even serving time doesn't feel like they had repented." Saburov saw her almost like a child in this, maybe that was stupid of him too, but he couldn't help but try to say something helpful.

"Then what can I do?" Anna meets his eyes for just a moment, she'll have more time to freak out about this later. Now, she just wanted the answer.

"Well, talk to someone. Find your own peace, we can give it to you." 

"Could I talk to you?" the benefits of having the law on your side could be amazing. 

"I'm busy today… If you're determined then try next weekend. Otherwise, I'm sure your friends would be a better fit."


	21. The Station and Sticky

Sticky didn't go to the train station a ton, it felt like a strange place to be. A puedo alignment, which isn't what he liked to do. Usually it was the same friends who always went there, a bit of variety but it's not like he was particularly close with those people. 

But all of the children were gone now, he was curious. Maybe they had left something behind too. He knew all the back alleys to go down and not be caught. It was an easy enough place to get to. At least it was for him, but he was used to it by now.

Sticky jumped down the steps, looking over to the train station where the military laid. There were a handful people all the way over there, but they weren't looking for him so he would be okay. He knew which way to turn to be not be seen, he wouldn't be here otherwise.

He hated how everything seemed to cling to him as he thought about all the kids that had left over the night. The town had toys laying around and there was a handful still hiding, all of them people he knew distantly. Kids from gangs were pushed out easier, but the orphans who never stayed with one or another had no one to account for them. To tell the military they were around. Those were the kids he found hiding in the usual spots he found isolation in. 

Sticky snuck around the back area, thankful that no one was actually over here when he peaked around the side. He stuck closer to the wall, watching himself as he kept close to the building despite it fighting him to walk around it's steps and platforms. He climbed instead, not because he had to but because he wanted to. It made him feel a bit younger as his fingers traced the bumps and lines on the building as he walked. He paid no attention to his hand, just continued till he reached the end. Where the kids usually sat. 

He had heard many stories out here, how people had died and haunted the area, or how it was cursed by the lost names of people who dropped them there. All alone. Though now the dead and curses seemed to be everywhere. Sometimes Sticky bet, after everything that's happened, the whole town was cursed… 

Sticky sat against the building, not wanting to go inside as he had before. He liked the sounds of the tywre as it buzzed, the sun beat down on him and the wind graced him enough to keep him cool. The building had always been abandoned, and he was always looking for new ways in. Each time he found one it was as if it was only showing him a section of itself. 

But he had gotten to know each section well, he could even remember a time where he spent a month just sleeping in the different rooms. It felt twisted, like it was hiding what it truly was by being so simple on the outside. There was a weird kinship he felt to it as he had his palms sat on the platform. Like they were one in the same.


	22. Nina Kaina

Nina Kaina was a ferisome woman. She was remembered for many things, stealing children and putting them in the steppe, knocking on doors and punishing the dishonest, and causing chaos in her wake. But she was not remembered for being a mother. For being tender or sweet with them. No one remembers how she was more protective than some would say, or how her words often hurt them more than helped. She struck fear into her children, and admiration and love. She was an unstoppable force with no immovable object to stop her from her mission on the path ahead of her. When people hear about Nina Kaina they think of how terrifying she had been, how she was a part of the biggest ruling family in the town, and how she has heirs, what they might do. But they do not comment that she is a mother.


	23. Alexander Saburov

The Saburovs were the least popular family in town for a reason. Yes, some put it on Katerina. Her addiction, shaking predictions, and infertility were of a few talking points of the flock. But at it's heart lay Alexander Saburov. A man a bit too power hungry. A bit too selfless, and a bit too corrupt. Stigma of his men was the reason birds flew away at the sight of them. He was not known for taking in the guilty, but the innocent. He was known for being unsociable, rude. He didn't even have a child to make up for it, which some blamed on him too. Rumors were sticky things. They blew up. But birds pecked around, they sang and squaked and never stopped going on and on. Small tunes became annoyingly loud calls that rang all over town.

It piped down the months after the fire, but there were still tunes that carried. Ones that weren't as kind as others had been during those times.


	24. Victoria Olgimskya

Victoria looked cold, they had an open casket for the women, right at the tomb she would stay in for years to come. Her face was so pale, whiter than she usually was. Much of the town had come, even the ones hurt by her. Which wasn't too unlike the memorial for the Dark Mistress. Of course the only thing that stood out was her daughter, in a white dress with her hair in an intricate bun. She stood by the casket the whole time, periodically holding her mother's hand. Many came to pay their respects, though neither of the Vlad's had ever shown up. It was just Victoria Jr., standing tall as her foundations cracked. The whole town knew they would be lost, broken without the last "useful" mistress. And it was shown best in how you could see Victoria Jr.'s composure chipping away. Such a broken girl… resembling the living mirror of the broken town.


	25. Notkin and Taya

Taya stood tall, her chin was always up, except unlike Khan she did it because she was trying to see. Today, she was trying to see the animals, she wanted to see all of them. There were so many in the warehouse, they littered the ground and flew high. Some even came in and out of the sky lights. She had visited to ask about her half, she wanted to reach a middle ground on more complicated matters. Like the buhas and jerboas. Was there a reason this one picked her? Or could she choose another. She wasn't sure she wanted to but she wanted to know her options. Young Artemiy always said that was important.

Notkin knew how to answer these questions, they were not much different from the younger kids who he had explained to a thousand times what all of this was. It depends,, there could be a reason they had picked her, but she would have to get to know them to know. No, she couldn't just switch, this was a deeper soul bound. And he supposed someone could have a bull, though it wasn't anything he would suggest to another. Jerboas are smaller, those were the types that had half a soul. 

Taya nodded through the conversation, interjecting when she deemed necessary, which was often, and Notkin sat patiently as she looked around and spoke. Obviously, she had seen many animals before, but this felt much different. These were tied to people, it was much different then the ties to the earth she was used to. But she liked this, it was personal, it was important. Of course, buhas had very important roles, but seeing them expanded upon was something she couldn't help but ponder. 

Obviously Taya would never run the runt of a gang that Notkin had. But she needed to understand, to understand and respect. And maybe grow to enjoy… if she found it. Though a pinky on a hand getting something so personalized felt wrong, though maybe it was like what Artemiy had spoken about. Body had things that helped it fight to stay alive, and maybe these halves would help their body.


	26. Ron and Murky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crossover ep. dndads and patho

Ron Stampler looked down at the little girl, she was dirty from playing in the dirt, he could tell that much. And she looked at him with a scowl, much like how Terry would when he first saw him in the morning. She seemed to be making art of some kind, pictures in the ground. Ron couldn't get what it was but it had lines.

"Are you good at drawing?" He tried, but she continued on, it was late. He wasn't sure how he ended up here but she seemed familiar. "I liked drawing when I was younger than you, but after awhile I wasn't allowed to anymore. So I can't draw as many dogs as I used to."

Still, no response. Now, she kept her head down and started drawing. He couldn't help but notice the bundle of plants sitting next to her. They looked fancy. "Heh, those sorta look like fishing lures. My father would always put fancy stuff on them, I wasn't allowed to touch it of course. Are those for someone?"

Ron wasn't gentle, but he was sitting cross legged in the dirt as the sun was going down and he had nowhere else to be. He wasn't sure what street he was by, or the exact way home. He would find something, he wasn't too worried. He spent longer nights outside when he was younger. 

"For me." She spoke, and Ron, five feet away from the girl, nodded. 

"Well they look very nice. Oh! Do you know what you're gonna use them for? You could maybe use it as a spice, I know plants do that sometimes. Or you could make a bracelet, I also wasn't allowed those when home but they can be really cool." At this, Murky looked up at him, stopping her action, she cocked her head. And he didn't know why, but he felt like he understood the kid. "Here, let me show you." 

Ron leaned forward, grabbing two from the ones she had set to the side for his words. It was green at the stem but the other half was red and it was the cooler part. So Ron got to it, braiding them together in a series of actions that were burned into his brain even though for years he was told it wasn't something boys should know. He liked that she looked intently at the process like she had on the picture, like what he was doing mattered.

And after he was done, he set it next to her picture, standing up.

He started dusting his pants off but he wasn't too concerned, he had pants under them if he found a reason to change into a businessman. 

"Stay safe, kiddo. If I find you again I'll actually show you how." and Ron walked away.


	27. Lancer and Lara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A weird crossover ig

Lancer twiddled his thumbs, swinging his small legs as he watched his hands. He was trying not to be invasive, trying not to be too annoying, too loud, too childish. He was trying to do what his father told him to, yet even that meant he felt the need to move. 

“Well, if you need somewhere to stay then this is a home to anyone. No matter the monster or the human.” Lara cut her usual jargon about donating, the kid seemed lost. And she didn’t know much about kids but she knew that they didn’t stay at her place for no reason. He seemed to be the same. 

“Are you sure? I still have some coins I can give you… I have one or two coins in my pocket” he attempted, feeling strange. He wasn’t used to lying, especially about who he was. 

Lara smiled, thin lips and all. She knew this kid, she had at once been friends with ones like him. A bit jumpy and all over the place, played bad but still had a heart of gold. Sometimes they seemed to get into the wrong crowds. And she knew how important money was when they were at that point. 

“Keep it, we do a lot of work around town and are trying to make this free housing. You don’t need to pay us, but we do have dinner waiting.” Lara paused, taking note of how his legs kicked a bit harder at that “Why don’t I take you don’t there and help you get a meal and introduce you to some people. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Lara stood up, her short hair brushing against her cheeks. He was a strange kid, and she was sure there was more to him. Even if she would never hear about it, even if he left tomorrow. She knew he was running from something. And she also knew that that was something that was needed sometimes. 

Sometimes people were safer while away, and she was always the first to reassure that that was okay. She knew too many people with situations bigger than themselves, she knew how to help people ~~but not herself.~~ So she would do what she knew, and work hard to help others do ~~what she could not~~ what they could to be safer, happier, better. 


	28. Clara and Katerina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clara talks to her mother while the plague is infesting the town.
> 
> "For I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed." Numbers 22:06

"I trust in you and your judgement. You are not fake butcher, nor are you a menku yet you have so much more power. You have the power to do incredible things, the ones you bless are blessed."

"And the ones she curse are cursed." Clara finished her mothers words. Looking at their hands interlaced rather than her face. Those sunken, glazed over eyes. That dazed expression she always carried. She cared for her mother but it was hard to watch her destroy herself from the inside out. Her hands is where she held all of her power, and Katerina held them so gently. 

"You are my daughter, Clara. Blood is not needed in that. You have power just as I do, except unlike the other girls, you can cure everyone here. You said just earlier you could save them. I believe it, don't doubt yourself." 

Clara nodded, squeezing her palm softly. She was going to make her mother proud. She wasn't exactly sure how to do that, but she knew she could save all of the damned here. She just needed… she needed to show them the way. And maybe in that her mother would love her, keep her. 

"I will not mother. I will save this town and take out the chaos the other healers reek. There will be healing in my solution. I will save this town." 

I will save you. She almost says as she looks into those hazy eyes, dark and unfocused. 

Clara didn't know her mother for long. But she would love her. She would do right by her. And no one would stop her. Especially not the fools chasing each others tails in hopes for their own win. 

There was no winning, not in this game. But apparently only she could see that. And she would do right by it. Certainly.


End file.
